What Aussie teens are surprisingly good at

Written By komlim puldel on Kamis, 10 Juli 2014 | 20.01

These teens can probably work out exactly how much each slice of pizza cost.Source: ThinkStock

THEY'RE the kind of scenarios that give adults headaches — loan documents, interest rates and other financial hoopla that can run circles around them.

But, as it turns out, Australian teenagers are doing pretty well in this area.

In a global OECD study, Australian 15-year olds have ranked pretty high on financial literacy, fourth out of 18 countries surveyed. First on the list was China, specifically Shanghai, while Colombia was relegated to last spot. Against an average OECD mark of 500, Australia scored 526, a handful of points ahead of New Zealand. Ahead of Australia was also Belgium and Estonia.

The study was conducted with 29,000 15-year olds in participating countries with 3293 Australians taking part. It tested the teens on financial concepts ranging from everyday banking to interest rates and income tax.

Australia was one of only four countries to have 10 per cent of students ranked in the top tier of financial literacy. Shanghai was far ahead of everyone else with more than 40 per cent of 15-year olds in the top band. The top tier involved understanding more complex financial products and documents and understanding the wider financial landscape.

Australian teenagers are nailing the financial literacy test.Source: News Limited

Girls performed marginally better than boys with an average score of 528 to the boys' 524. Overall, immigrant students also scored, on average, 28 points higher than non-immigrant students. Students in inner city schools performed better than those in rural schools, even when you factor in socio-economic levels.

Students with at least one parent in a skilled occupation also performed significantly better than those with parents in semi-skilled and elementary roles, at a rate of 53 points higher.

However, 10.4 per cent of Aussie students still only managed the bottom tier in financial literacy.

The study found that across OECD countries, the level of students' financial literacy generally corresponded with the level of mathematics and reading performance, although Australia outperformed on financial literacy compared to the other two areas.